LePage Unhappy About Lack Of Options For New District Attorney

There’s some tension brewing over who will replace Evert Fowle as the District Attorney for Kennebec and Somerset Counties. Fowle was appointed as a District Court Judge by Governor LePage in January.State law says the governor will choose Fowle’s replacement, but the new District Attorney must also be from the same political party as his predecessor, in this instance a Democrat.LePage must select the new DA from a list of names provided by the Democratic parties of those two counties. A spokesperson for the governor says he was disappointed that the list of candidates he received had only one name on it, State Representative Maeghan Maloney, a Democrat from Augusta.LePage wanted to see more names, including acting DA and long time Fowle assistant, Alan Kelley on the list. Kelley ran for the job as a Republican back in 2001, but lost to Fowle. Both Maloney and Kelley say they’re very interested in the job. “The law to me is fairly clear that the committee should be submitting multiple names,” Kelley said Monday. “When they only submitted one name certainly that was a surprise to me. Certainly it’s my hope the committee will reconsider and submit both names to the governor so he can make an appointment.” Maloney argues that submitting just one name is not unprecedented. “It’s often that only one name is submitted,” she said. “During the Baldacci administration Representative Paul Davis let me know there were 3 county commissioners and one judge of probate where only one name was submitted. It’s up to the county. They can submit one name, they can submit 20 names. It’s completely up to them.” Maloney is hoping to meet with Governor LePage so she can explain to him what her goals would be as District Attorney. She says both she and the governor share strong feelings about domestic violence and veterans affairs.Rita Moran, Chairperson of the Kennebec County Democrats, would not say if they planned to add Kelley or anyone else to the potential list of candidates. “We have not heard back from the governor yet,” she said Monday. “The ball is in the governor’s court now.”